Idealogy and Gender

Male Gaze

The idealogy of the genre affects all aspects of its representation. Music magazines will reflect the idealogy of their genres in visual style and language. The theorist Laura Mulvey argues that media reflects the 'MALE GAZE'. Laura Mulvey set out to explore the male gaze and expose the power structure at play in cinema.  In 1975 she wrote an essay called, “Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema”, She identifies the influence of a patriarchal society in relation to film, also exploring how the camera acts as a 'male' eye where women are looked, and men being the 'lookers'. She points out that feminists need a variety of ways and methods to understand the unseen workings of the patriarchal system which objectify women.

Use of the Male Gaze in magazines


Features of the Male Gaze The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely to react the mans gaze.This relegates women to the status of objects. Some theorists also have noted the sexualizing of the female body even in situations where female sexiness has nothing to do with the product being advertised. For example music magazines such as Rolling Stone reflects this idea of the 'male gaze' as celebrities are photographed from a upwards angle showing off their curves and body having nothing to do with the music side of there career. Here the camera is acting like the Mans eyes and what the man wants to see. I feel that this is a reassurance to men and their sexual power and at the same moment deny any sexuality of women other than the male construction.

Music and Ideology

An ideology is a beleif or ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture. Every music genre has this idea of an acompanying ideology. Often gneres divide along binary oppositions or a dichotomy. A dichotomy meaning a procedure that is a whole whole split into two parts for example two different music genres.

Here is an exampe of a dichotomy in pop and rock.

                                                 Pop                     Rock  

                  

                                                Clean                                    Dirty                                                           

Calmer                               Agressive

Euphemistic                       Literal

Non-Sexual                        Sexual

No drugs                             Drugs

Happy                                Angry

Dream                                Realistic

Professional/Rehearsed      Less Competent

Generic                               Individual

Low pitched                       High Pitched

Apolitcal                           Policical

For the first assignment in AS Media we had to create a Southfield School for girls front page of magazine cover. This is our final piece. We had to include a mid-shot so we decided to use a student of the school proudly standing outside of the school. We chose the name 'The Social' for the magazine as we felt that is was appropriate for our target audience, them mainly being the students of the school. We also wanted to avoid using the word 'Southfield' in the title as it is visible in the mid-shot of the student. We took the idea o the strapline at the bottom from the magazine from other magazines we had researched previously and felt the photos re-forced the light friendly tone of the school magazine.

 

Here is a real school magazine for Fearnes Sport college.
 In comparison to our magazine there are some aspects that are similar. For example this magazine has a mid-shot in the centre of the front cover, However the image is of a girl playing netball, this could be because it re-enforces the school being a sports college. Also it could be because it is clear recognition of the high school to any outside readers. The colour scheme of red and white is also similar to our magazine, this may purely be because they are the school colours, however it could also be purposefully used as red and white stand out and are very compatible especially when bold red writing is on a white background. Both the magazines have a section at the bottom of the magazine informing the audience on different information. Similarly they are both red and white as this is keeping to the colour scheme, however on this front cover the part at the bottom is acting as a contents page informing the audience of what is to find within the magazine. I like the idea of this especially for a school magazine as it is a clear guidline for different audiences to find what they might be looking for, for example a parent reader could be interested in a different topic to a student therefore this clear contents on indicates where that could be found instead of over crowding the front cover with pictures and writing.

Indroduction

 

 

hey everyone,

 

This is my as media blog. This is where i shall post frequent pictures and updates of what i have been completing throughout the as media lessons. The first peice of cooursework is to complete a school magazine and contents page.

 

hope you enjoy, ella x